Ford Foundation NewsNews from the Ford FoundationCopyright Ford Foundation 2015Fri, 31 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0700FordfoundationNewsFeedIdhttp://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/972
Pell Grants to support education for incarcerated people: The latest news<br>
<p>There was robust coverage of this week&#8217;s announcement of a new federal program that will enable incarcerated Americans to receive Pell Grants and pursue postsecondary education while in prison.</p>
<p>Ford Foundation President Darren Walker praised the news:</p>
<p>&#8220;The promise of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program has been demonstrated time and time again with profound results. When incarcerated individuals have access to high quality higher education it reduces recidivism and transforms the lives of individuals and communities. This is a moment of opportunity to reform our criminal justice system into one that values and restores humanity and justice. A system that is worthy of our ideals includes programs that restore dignity to individuals and also make common sense.&#8221;</p>
<p>For more perspectives, check out our blog posts on the work that <a href="/equals-change/post/opportunity-and-dignity-for-incarcerated-americans">helped lead to the Pell Grants program</a>, <a href="/equals-change/post/rare-opportunity-for-criminal-justice">the latest strides in sentencing reform</a>, and last year&#8217;s <a href="/equals-change/post/how-prison-education-can-transform-lives-and-renew-communities">TEDx event at Ironwood State Prison</a>. Plus: Our <a href="/equals-change/post/the-bard-prison-initiative-bringing-hope-to-a-broken-system">Q&A with Bard Prison Initiative founder Max Kenner</a>.</p>
<h2>News and Analysis</h2>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/07/30/obama-is-reinstating-pell-grants-for-prisoners" target="_blank">&#8220;Obama is reinstating Pell Grants for prisoners. But will politics eventually trump cost and data?&#8221; The Marshall Project, July 30, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>Studies have found a wide variety of benefits to post-secondary education in prison, including fewer disciplinary infractions, higher rates of post-release employment, and improved self-image. In one notable study, a sociologist argued that college&#8217;s positive benefits stem from reduced &#8220;prisonization&#8221; — the classroom makes inmates feel less like inmates and more like everyday people.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/pell-grants-to-be-restored-for-prisoners-1438029241" target="_blank">&#8220;Pell Grants to be restored for prisoners,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>While incarcerated at Hudson County Correctional Facility, [Wesley Caines, 49] used a privately funded program to earn an associate degree, then a bachelor&#8217;s and a master&#8217;s, after studying the work of Nietzsche and W.E.B. Du Bois. He&#8217;s now working for a Brooklyn firm helping other ex-offenders re-enter society. &#8220;Prison is perhaps one of the most dehumanizing environments that any human being could find themselves in,&#8221; he said. &#8220;One of the best ways to make transformative gains is to be educated.&#8221;</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/philanthropists-lawmakers-behind-new-push-for-college-education-in-prison-1438027905" target="_blank">&#8220;Philanthropists, lawmakers behind new push for college education in prison,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>&#8220;There is nothing proven to be less expensive and more effective than college,&#8221; said Max Kenner, executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, which annually enrolls nearly 300 prisoners in degree programs from Bard College in New York.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/76700/" target="_blank">&#8220;College access seen as key to curbing recidivism,&#8221; Diverse Issues in Higher Education, July 29, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>&#8220;Just because someone&#8217;s been locked up, just because they may be gang-involved doesn&#8217;t mean that we shouldn&#8217;t have incredibly high expectations for these individuals or that we shouldn&#8217;t put forth every effort into getting them to and through college,&#8221; said Mark Culliton, CEO of College Bound Dorchester, an organization that works with high school dropouts and former gang members to get them into community college.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/us/push-to-scale-back-sentencing-laws-gains-momentum.html?_r=0" target="_blank">&#8220;Bipartisan push builds to relax sentencing laws,&#8221; The New York Times, July 29, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>&#8220;I&#8217;ve long believed there needed to be reform of our criminal justice system,&#8221; said Mr. Boehner, endorsing a House bill that would change the system. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got a lot of people in prison, frankly, that don&#8217;t really in my view need to be there. It&#8217;s expensive to house. Some of these people are in there for what I&#8217;ll call flimsy reasons.&#8221;</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-criminal-justice-reform-has-chance" target="_blank">&#8220;Why Criminal Justice Reform Has a Chance,&#8221; MSNBC, July 29, 2015 </a></strong></p>
<p><i>It wasn&#8217;t long ago that any Democratic talk about criminal-injustice reforms would be met with immediate, knee-jerk talking points about &#8220;soft-on-crime&#8221; liberals who want to &#8220;coddle&#8221; criminals. Last month, however, as Rachel noted on the show, even House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he &#8220;absolutely&#8221; supports bipartisan reforms.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/07/23/americas-mass-incarceration-system-freedoms-next-frontier/" target="_blank">&#8220;America&#8217;s mass incarceration system: Freedom&#8217;s next frontier,&#8221; Reuters, July 24, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>For the victims of this system locked in prison cells, this moment when a substantive national conversation is unfolding and when policy changes are in process is more than welcome. For them, it is a lifeline.</i></p>Fri, 31 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/971
&#8216;An important shift for American philanthropy&#8217;<p>In this op-ed, Tom Watson, president of CauseWired and a columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, explains why Ford's <a href="/equals-change/post/whats-next-for-the-ford-foundation">commitment to general operating support</a> matters to the broader landscape of funding for social change. The foundation's move is "a clear recognition that organizations do the heavy lifting&#8212;often over the course of decades&#8212;in fighting social ills, conquering disease, and forging new policy," he writes. "It’s a mature and serious nod to the general realization that making progress on problems like inequality, poverty, disease, and climate change is more like a tugboat shifting an ocean liner across a busy harbor than a speedboat racing to the finish line."</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in the <a href="https://philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Smart-Donors-Are/231681" target="_blank">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a></span>
<h3>Smart Donors Are Putting Nonprofits Back in Charge</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">July 16, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Tom Watson </span>
<p>So far, this has been a summer of political campaigning and stunning social change: hateful flags coming down, rainbow flags going up&#8212;and deeper meaningful conversations in the United States about the forces that still divide us.</p>
<p>Among those voices has been that of Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation and keeper of its $12-billion-plus endowment, who announced last month that the second-largest philanthropy in the nation will focus much of its grant making on inequality, aiming to use its capital to create a "social-justice infrastructure." This fits our changing times like a glove.</p>
<p>But so does Mr. Walker’s other major strategic shift: doubling Ford’s commitment to unrestricted grants for nonprofit operating support.</p>
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<p><a href="https://philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Smart-Donors-Are/231681" target="_blank">Read the complete article &raquo;</a></p>
Mon, 20 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/970
Ford responds to WSJ: Lasting gains come when all sectors work together<p>In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, <a href="/about-us/leadership/alfred-ironside">Alfred Ironside</a>, vice president for global communications, responded to a recent piece in the paper critical of the foundation. Former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler had <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10587845965603524902004581051710812887634" target="_blank">taken issue</a> with our plan to dedicate resources to fighting inequality: &#8220;Society benefits from making, not giving,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;We share Andy Kessler&#8217;s view that Henry Ford and other visionary makers in every era are huge contributors to economic prosperity,&#8221; Ironside allowed. But:</p>
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<p>Ford helped transform America in part because he recognized his workers ought to be able to buy the cars they were building. But inequality isn&#8217;t just economic, and markets aren&#8217;t society&#8217;s sole levelers.</p>
<p>By providing risk capital to social innovators, philanthropy creates value that markets don&#8217;t. Early Ford Foundation investments in microfinance and the green revolution, for instance, helped bring hundreds of millions of people into markets. Support for the anti-apartheid movement and human rights leaders in Latin America and the Soviet bloc contributed to the rise of global democracy. Investments in ideas like Head Start and Pell grants put opportunity in reach for millions of poor Americans. And support for civil rights has enabled people to fight for their right to participate fully in the economic and political life of the country.</p>
<p>Catalytic gains like these, nurtured by the philanthropic giving Mr. Kessler derides (and often brought to scale by smart government investment), cannot be measured on an earnings statement, to be sure. Yet the multiples of value they have created for society as a whole are undeniable.</p>
<p>Unlike Mr. Kessler, we find no difficulty in reconciling our belief in individual enterprise and ingenuity with an equally profound belief in the lasting gains in American well-being that come when all sectors—private, public and nonprofit—work together.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/capitalist-and-philanthropist-often-go-hand-in-hand-1435774069" target="_blank">Read the letter alongside other responses to Kessler&#8217;s piece.</a></p>Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/969
Darren Walker on the state of civil society<p>In his contribution to Civicus’s 2015 State of Civil Society Report, Darren Walker explains the importance of institution-building, and why social justice organizations need funding for core support (to which the foundation recently announced a <a href="/equals-change/post/whats-next-for-the-ford-foundation">renewed commitment</a>):</p>
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<p>For all that project-based grants can accomplish, they cannot keep the lights on. They do not provide organisations with the flexibility to meet their needs and pursue their missions. They focus on a short term initiative, rather than long term institutional health. And this is why, going forward, as a general principle, the Ford Foundation is committed to increasing general support.</p>
<p>In my experience, we too often ask what CSOs [civil society organizations] can do on our behalf, and too little about what we can do on theirs. When I was a CSO leader myself, I rarely heard foundation programme officers begin a conversation with the words, “How can we help you create a stronger organisation?”</p>
<p>And yet this is precisely the question donors should be asking.</p>
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<p><a href="http://civicus.org/images/SOCS2015_ESSAY27_HowCanWeHelp.pdf" target="_blank">Read the full essay, &#8220;How Can We Help You?&#8221;</a></p>Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/968
Getting Internet policy right<p>In this op-ed, Jenny Toomey, director of the foundation's work on Internet Rights, and Dave Steer, director of advocacy for the Mozilla Foundation, examine the tech talent crisis and point to some signs of hope. &#8220;Attracting new, talented leaders willing to fight and defend the Internet is critical,&#8221; they write. &#8220;Today&#8217;s computer science students can&#8217;t imagine a career path that leads them to Washington.&#8221; And the public sector needs their technical expertise: That&#8217;s why Ford and Mozilla are teaming up to invest in programs that develop opportunities and career paths for the next generation of &#8220;Web literate, digitally-savvy public servants.&#8221;</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/06/19/how-do-we-get-internet-policy-right-bring-in-the-nerds/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a></span>
<h3>How do we get Internet policy right? Bring in the nerds.</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">June 19, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Dave Steer and Jenny Toomey </span>
<p>This has been a milestone year for Internet policy. After a slew of significant public policy wins for the Internet&#8212;net neutrality and surveillance reform, to name but two&#8212;we are finally starting to see a movement to protect the public&#8217;s rights online.</p>
<p>But these issues are incredibly complex, and sustaining these victories will require a new cadre of digitally-savvy public servants who can seamlessly navigate both the technical and policy realms. Just as the environmental movement relies on ecologists to protect the oceans and the air, the movement to keep the Internet free and accessible needs leaders with tech expertise and Web literacy to inform the public dialogue.</p>
<p>The Internet has transformed how we connect and engage with the world around us, creating challenges and opportunities in every area of contemporary life. On one hand, the Internet can foster learning, organize global movements, distribute financial supports and expose injustices. On the other, it can be used to exert control, stifle legitimate discourse, entrench bias and concentrate power in the hands of a few.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/06/19/how-do-we-get-internet-policy-right-bring-in-the-nerds/" target="_blank">Read the complete article &raquo;</a></p>
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/967
Darren Walker on dismantling inequality<p>In an op-ed for CNN, Darren Walker lays out the Ford Foundation&#8217;s analysis of inequality and explains how it has fueled our reorganization. &#8220;By identifying what we see as inequality's five drivers, we encourage those working on any one of these issues to look more holistically, more systemically and more deeply at the solving the problem,&#8221; he writes. &#8220;We cannot focus solely on the economic piece of the puzzle, or look at racial or educational inequality in isolation. Doing so treats symptoms while ignoring the disease.&#8221;</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/17/opinions/walker-inequality-roots/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a></span>
<h3>Inequality can be dismantled at the root</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">June 17, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Darren Walker</span>
<p>Around the world today, the greatest threat to justice is inequality.</p>
<p>Inequality is the byproduct of systems and structures&#8212;intentional policies and ingrained prejudices&#8212;that have over many decades tilted the scales in favor of some, while limiting opportunity for many others.</p>
<p>Here's what we can do: Attack inequality at its roots.</p>
<p>Thanks to the roadmap outlined in Thomas Piketty's bestseller &#8220;Capital in the Twenty-First Century&#8221; or Joseph Stiglitz's recent report on the importance of shared prosperity, we can identify the origins of inequality. </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/17/opinions/walker-inequality-roots/index.html/" target="_blank">Read the complete article &raquo;</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/equals-change/post/whats-next-for-the-ford-foundation">Learn more about what&#8217;s next for the foundation &raquo;</a></p>Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/965
Reaffirming our roots in Detroit<p>This week the trustees of the Ford Foundation met in Detroit, the city in which we were established, for the first time since moving to New York in 1946. From local investments in our earliest years to our support for the recent Grand Bargain, we are committed to this city for the long haul.</p>
<p>Marking the board's historic visit, Darren Walker, president of the foundation, and Kofi Appenteng, chair of Ford’s board of trustees, <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/06/15/detroit-ford-bankruptcy/71266880/" target="_blank">co-authored an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press</a>. They expressed gratitude to the Ford Family and Ford Motor Company “for the mission that continues to guide us” and pointed to “our focus on inequality” as central to the foundation’s contribution to the “grand bargain” and ongoing commitment to the city in which it was established.</p>
<p>“To fulfill the promise of the grand bargain,” wrote Walker and Appenteng, “all of us who care about the future of the city must understand inequality—in all its forms—as the challenge to be rooted out.” They envision a prosperous and inclusive future for Detroit, saying, “We are here for the long haul, and pledge to work tirelessly to tackle inequality and lift up the progress that Detroiters lead.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/history/detroit">Learn more about the Ford Foundation's history in Detroit.</a></p>
<h2>More coverage</h2>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/06/18/ford-foundation-invest-detroit-target-inequality/28943443/" target="_blank">The Detroit News, &#8220;Ford Foundation to invest in Detroit, target inequality,&#8221; June 18, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>Fighting inequality will be the focus of all grant making for the Ford Foundation, and president Darren Walker said Thursday the work will begin with additional investments in Detroit. ... "The most stark manifestation of inequality is between Detroit the city and the region of southeast Michigan. There has to be more support for efforts to build the community regionally," he said.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/06/16/detroiters-optimism-ford-foundation-head/28835181/" target="_blank">The Detroit News, &#8220;Detroiters' optimism captivates Ford Foundation head,&#8221; June 16, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>Walker said he spent part of the day exploring the city, touring Michigan Avenue, passing through Sherwood Forest and then into blighted areas near Seven Mile and Woodward.</i></p>
<p><i>The contrast, Walker said, is representative of inequality in society and the economy.</i></p>
<p><i>"We're used to seeing this in India and other locations, but to see it in our neighborhood is disturbing," he said. "What continues to inspire me is the optimism in the city. People in Detroit have a boundless capacity to be the best and look to the future."</i></p>
<img src="/Images/newsroom/soundhouse.jpg" alt="Sound House" />
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<p><i>Trustees visit Detroit's Sound House, part of efforts by Power House Productions to build community through creative expression.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/06/13/ford-foundation-board-detroit-revitalization/71183022/" target="_blank">The Detroit News, &#8220;Ford Foundation board making rare Detroit visit,&#8221; June 13, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>"We are visiting many of the sites and grantee partners to deepen the board's understanding of the work there and the implications of urban revitalization," [Darren] Walker said. "There are many lessons in Detroit for America around urban revitalization."</i></p>
<p><i>"We see our work in Detroit achieving two objective: making a material difference in lives of Detroiters, but using the opportunity to work in Detroit to inform our work nationally," he said.</i></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/columnists/daniel-howes/2015/06/03/howes-ford-foundation-homecoming-renews-ties-founding-family/28451243/" target="_blank">The Detroit News, &#8220;Howes: Ford Foundation homecoming renewing family ties,&#8221; June 3, 2015</a></strong></p>
<p><i>The New York-based Ford Foundation's decision to hold its first board meeting in Detroit since 1948 is a rapprochement long in the making.</i></p>
<p><i>In the wake of a $125 million commitment to the Detroit bankruptcy's "grand bargain," CEO Darren Walker is moving to reconnect the foundation and its $12.3 billion in assets to the city of its founding, and school his trustees on the challenges and opportunities here. He's also rebuilding ties with the family whose legacy has financed the foundation's causes around the world.</i></p>Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/964
Ford Foundation Honored by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater: The Power of Dance for Social Justice<p>
The Ford Foundation will be honored this evening at the Ailey Spring Gala for its support for the arts and arts education. The evening's event will include world-renowned dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in excerpts from Robert Battle's <a href="http://www.alvinailey.org/takademe" target="_blank">"Takademe"</a> and Alvin Ailey's timeless <a href="http://www.alvinailey.org/about/company/alvin-ailey-american-dance-theater/repertory/revelations" target="_blank">"Revelations"</a>.
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The Ford Foundation is also honored to have Robert Battle, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as one of its thirteen visiting fellows in <a href="/newsroom/news-from-ford/954">The Art of Change</a> - a yearlong exploration and conversation on how art can advance social justice in the world today.
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As part of his fellowship, Robert Battle is exploring how dance and movement can serve as powerful weapons for social change (see more below).
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<b><a href="/newsroom/news-from-ford/954">Learn more about the Art of Change Visiting Fellows</a></b>Wed, 10 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/963
Behind the latest news on Internet privacy<p>This week, the U.S. Senate ended the NSA’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records by passing the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/us/politics/senate-surveillance-bill-passes-hurdle-but-showdown-looms.html" target="_blank">USA Freedom Act</a>. This significant reform of U.S. surveillance policy came after intensive efforts by activists and advocates (many of them supported by the Ford Foundation) to protect citizens’ right to privacy on the Internet. And of course, it was preceded by Edward Snowden’s revelations of the U.S. government’s mass data collection of citizens’ Internet and phone communications. </p>
<p>While Snowden was the high-profile catalyst for this week’s development, his revelations might never have gotten the attention of civil liberties advocates, policymakers, and the public had it not been for the dedicated individuals in news media and documentary filmmaking who shared his story with the world. One of them is the journalist, filmmaker, and artist Laura Poitras, whose acclaimed documentary, <a href="https://citizenfourfilm.com" target="_blank"><i>CitizenFour</i></a>, tells the story Edward Snowden and the real-time developments that unfolded around the release of information regarding the U.S. government’s domestic spying and surveillance program. (CitizenFour received major support from the Ford Foundation’s <a href="/issues/freedom-of-expression/justfilms#2012-endgame-aids-in-black-america">JustFilms</a> and <a href="/issues/human-rights/internet-rights">Internet Rights</a> initiatives.) </p>
<p>We are often asked how funding the arts can help to advance social justice. Poitras’s powerful work perfectly <a href="/equals-change/post/citizenfour-filmmaking-as-an-act-of-justice">illustrates how art can promote dialogue about justice and civil liberties</a>&#8212;ones that can lead to meaningful change. That’s why Poitras is among our thirteen Visiting Fellows in <a href="/newsroom/news-from-ford/953">The Art of Change</a>, a yearlong initiative to explore how art can help achieve social justice in the world today. </p>
<p>Edward Snowden’s revelations also point to the larger issue of how the Internet is impacting law and society around the world. There is no doubt that the ubiquitous nature of the Internet has created tremendous opportunities for learning, debating, and sharing ideas, and increasing transparency globally. But at the same time, its technology can be used to stifle legitimate discourse, expose people and institutions to new dangers, and threaten civil liberties.</p>
<p>We recently explored these issues with leading experts in technology, government, business, and philanthropy at <a href="/issues/human-rights/internet-rights/news?id=937">NetGain</a>, a forum on building a digital society that promotes innovation, social justice, and progress. And we will continue to support people and organizations working at the critical intersections of art, technology, and social change&#8212;where some of the most important and dynamic work on these issues is happening.</p>
Fri, 05 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/962
Darren Walker speaks to the Hostos Community College Class of 2015<p><i>Bronx, New York - Thursday, June 4, 2015<br>
Remarks as prepared</i></p>
<p>To President Dr. David Gómez; to the leadership of CUNY; to the deans, faculty, and staff; and, most importantly, to the Hostos Community College Class of 2015: Congratulations! I&#8217;m so proud to share this day with each of you. I&#8217;m humbled to celebrate your extraordinary achievement. And I think each of us owes a special debt of gratitude to this momentous day&#8217;s unsung heroes. </p>
<p>Graduates: Please stand and join me in, once again, thanking your parents and grandparents, your spouses and partners, your brothers and sisters, your godparents and mentors, your friends of every kind and category. None of us walks our unlikely journeys alone. This milestone belongs as much to them as it does to you.</p>
<p>Over the years, I&#8217;ve been to more than a few commencement ceremonies...in more than a few places. And I&#8217;m very proud that just a few subway stops away from our offices at the Ford Foundation in Midtown, there is a school that rivals almost any othe&#8212;a school that stands out for both celebrating diversity and encouraging excellence.</p>
<p>Of course, a lot changes between 43rd Street and 149th street, between Grand Central Station and Grand Concourse...even just between Manhattan and the Bronx. It&#8217;s sometimes unbelievable to think how different worlds can exist in the same city...or in the same country.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t need to belabor the observation that, for the United States, this is a seminal moment&#8212;a period of profound (and not always equal) change. Indeed, the America of your college graduation day looks, and feels, and sounds very different than the America of mine. Consider this: A half-century ago, 17 out of every 20 Americans were of European descent. A half-century from now, we&#8217;ll be well on our way to the opposite. In other words, with each passing day, America looks more and more like the South Bronx! And taken together, what this means is that your perspective matters more than ever before.</p>
<p>Look around, and you&#8217;ll see that you are waves of a rising tide. Your lived experience is shared by a growing plurality of Americans. Look around, and you&#8217;ll see Raisa Valerio: The first member of her family to attend college, let alone receive a degree. The proud mother of a 6-year-old son. Raisa has been accepted to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as well as Hunter College, and is considering a career within the Department of Corrections. Raisa, congratulations!</p>
<p>Look around, and you&#8217;ll see Diana Eusebio: Diana started life with her family in Mexico&#8212;but came to the United States and New York as DREAMer. She&#8217;s pursuing her interest in science, while advocating for herself and others like her inside and outside of school. Today she is a Lincoln Academy Student&#8212;and has earned her Regents Diploma and an Associate Degree from Hostos. Congratulations, Diana!</p>
<p>Indeed, I am looking around, and I see all of you. Your hard work. Your triumphs. And I stand in awe of each of you. Because I started my journey in your very seats.</p>
<p>You see, as a young boy, raised by a single mom, I wasn&#8217;t supposed to go to college. As a young man totally unprepared for the world, I wasn&#8217;t supposed to graduate from a top-flight law school. As a young professional, with no experience in finance, I wasn&#8217;t supposed to cut it on the trading floor of a major New York bank. And when I started in philanthropy, there the skeptics and cynics were again. They told me to lower my sights. They said that because I went to public schools, not private schools, that because I had on-the ground experience, not a Ph.D., that because I had never worked in the venerated halls of old, stodgy foundations, I couldn&#8217;t effectively manage seasoned, polished, buttoned-up executives.</p>
<p>My point is: In the eyes of so many, I wasn&#8217;t supposed to have the opportunities I did&#8212;and I certainly wasn&#8217;t supposed to seize them. And every time I think about how I was not supposed to be where I am, I remember how I almost was not here at all. My childhood friends were cousins?&#8212;?boys with talents, and passions, and potential no different from my own. They found themselves caught in the same cycle of despair and injustice that has trapped so many of our young black and brown men. By my count, five of them have spent significant time in prison.</p>
<p>It reminds me exactly why days like these are so special...and so important...and so precious. Because there are insidious systems at work&#8212;entrenched systems that stack the deck against people like us... that make it harder to go from aspiration to achievement. But then there are institutions at work for good&#8212;institutions like Hostos&#8212;that advance, rather than hinder, opportunity.</p>
<p>Graduates: Look around. Here we all are... sharing this auspicious day. And what was true for me is true for you: You have to push forward, with courage and resolve, with poise and patience, with gratitude and grace. You have to represent these institutions of good, with excellence. And you already know exactly what this takes&#8212;better than most.</p>
<p>Many of you are the first in your families to graduate college&#8212;blazing a trail for generations to follow. And most of you attended class, while holding down a job, and raising a family. You woke up early. You worked and studied... and then worked some more. You did not coast. Cruise control was not an option. You took nothing for granted. And, as a result, you remind us all that anything... that everything... is still possible.</p>
<p>Graduates: You embody excellence&#8212;because of where you are; because of how hard you&#8217;ve worked, and how far you&#8217;ve come. Immigrant... native. Straight... gay. Wealthy in means... rich only in resolve and resilience. Daughters and sons of proud families. Mothers and fathers of children, who will lead better lives because of your talent and your toil. Because of your sacrifice.</p>
<p>And so, I ask you&#8212;I implore you&#8212;don&#8217;t stop. Keep dreaming. Keep working. Keep pushing forward. But keep reaching back, too. Start a business. Join a community association. Sign a petition. Serve on the PTA. Vote. The onus is on you. To stand up. To speak out. To use the weapons that Hostos has given you to fight for social justice.</p>
<p>Let me close with this: As coincidence&#8212;or maybe fate&#8212;would have it, today marks the 50th anniversary of another seminal commencement ceremony, the 1965 Howard University commencement at which President Lyndon Johnson delivered one of his greatest speeches. In it, he said&#8212;and I&#8217;m quoting here: &#8220;We seek not just freedom, but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity, but human ability. Not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result.&#8221;</p>
<p>For my part, I believe that inequality is the greatest challenge we face as a society. But the opposite of inequality is not just equality... it is justice. And justice is what we must fight for, each in our own way but all together at the same time. For some of you, the fight may be here in the South Bronx. For others, it may be wherever else your family calls home. But your location does not trim your responsibility. Indeed, we are bound together&#8212;by pride in our history and our desire to make better our shared future.</p>
<p>Graduates: Your final class assignment is one that you must carry with you always. Demonstrate your excellence every day. Climb the ladder up, and when you do, don&#8217;t lift it behind you. This is a moment you will remember and cherish forever. Earning a degree from Hostos is a great achievement. But do not let it be your greatest achievement. Because there is much work to be done. Because your work is just beginning. And I cannot wait to see what you accomplish next.</p>
<p>Congratulations.</p>Thu, 04 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/961
Darren Walker addresses the Presidio Graduate School Class of 2015<p><i>San Francisco, California - Saturday, May 30, 2015<br>
Remarks as prepared</i></p>
<p>To the deans, the faculty and staff, the family and friends of the graduates, and, of course, the class of 2015: Congratulations!</p>
<p>Before we get too far along here, I need to be honest with you. This is not a typical commencement address. Far from it. Just look around.</p>
<p>At organizations large and small, at established corporations and exciting startups, at consulting firms and civil-society organizations, you <i>already</i> have blazed the trail towards a more sustainable world.</p>
<p>Now, not to make this about me, but for yours truly, this presents something of a challenge. You see, this podium is definitely not a platform for some wise old man to offer advice to the young and energetic leaders of tomorrow.</p>
<p>First of all, I&#8217;m not old. But second, you&#8217;re leaders today.</p>
<p>Usually, when I&#8217;m asked to talk about sustainable businesses, I tell people what they are. But you already know that. I usually explain why sustainability is important. But you already know that, too. And I usually share some perspective on how organizations and institutions can make more sustainable choices. But as seasoned practitioners, on the frontlines of business-sustainability challenges, you know this work better than I do!</p>
<p>So in light of all this, I hope you&#8217;ll forgive me for eschewing the formula of tradition, and, instead, engaging in a conversation about the bridge between where we are and where we need to be. Because while the work never stops being rewarding, it never starts getting easier.
And, more than that, we&#8217;re dealing with a complex, shifting set of issues&#8212;all emerging from, and evolving in dialogue with, an underlying crisis of inequality.</p>
<p>For my part, I believe that inequality&#8212;in all of its forms&#8212;is the greatest threat that our society faces. We see it in our economy, in our culture, in our politics and participation. And the level at which we see it is wholly unjust, to say nothing of unsustainable.</p>
<p>Last fall, at the Ford Foundation, we began a conversation about exactly these issues. We spoke with experts from around the world. And we asked the question: How can we make capitalism work for good? </p>
<p>In other words, we asked, &#8220;where markets lead, can justice follow?&#8221; And the answer, simply put, is three words: It can, if.</p>
<p>It can, if our businesses strive to optimize all kinds of value&#8212;social, environmental, cultural; not just to maximize shareholder value. It can, if we invest based not only on short-term gain, but also on long term good. It can, if we learn to resist the impulse to define every element of our lives in relation to capital, if we stop elevating market-oriented thinking above all other kinds and categories of human understanding. It can, if we think about markets and human dignity not as competing priorities, but as complementary ones.</p>
<p>Take a not-so-old example from when I was standing in your shoes and not far removed from sitting in your seats. Between my stints in global finance and global philanthropy, I worked with a community development corporation in Harlem.</p>
<p>In those days, many of the so-called advocates and experts&#8212;people I respected and admired&#8212;would speculate about the concerns of the community without ever so much as visiting with local residents. These outsiders had all the best intentions.</p>
<p>And yet, they tried to impose social change on the neighborhood, without regard to the people in the neighborhood. This was the textbook example of what my friend, the eminent scholar William Easterly calls &#8220;the tyranny of experts.&#8221; And the tragic irony, of course, is that if these experts had listened not lectured, they might have learned that the biggest issue on people&#8217;s minds was not the lack of some complicated, rights-based &#8220;theory of change.&#8221; It was the lack of a supermarket.</p>
<p>You see, the last supermarket had left the neighborhood some four decades earlier. And people in the community believed that they&#8212;citizens of the symbolic capital of the world&#8217;s wealthiest nation&#8212;had a right to basic services like groceries. Not the craziest idea in the world.</p>
<p>Well, during the late 1990s, our community development corporation helped attract a full-service Pathmark store to Harlem. And when we did, we broke the bottleneck&#8212;in a way that no technocratic development plan ever could have.</p>
<p>By bringing in one business, we created an environment in which others soon followed. As businesses went in, people wanted to stay or move in, too. And thus, we set in motion a virtuous cycle&#8212;a new Harlem renaissance for the 21st century.</p>
<p>What did I learn from this experience? Something that&#8217;s, in a word, disruptive. (As they say, when in San Francisco...)</p>
<p>Too often&#8212;and this is the case everywhere&#8212;we retreat into our separate ideological corners.</p>
<p>On one side are those who are exclusively &#8220;rights-oriented.&#8221; They believe that ordinary people deserve certain benefits and protections&#8212;to make the system equal and fair&#8212;and that businesses should adapt accordingly.</p>
<p>On the other side are thinkers and advocates who believe that the only way to achieve inclusive, fair development is through &#8220;market-based&#8221; approaches that allow the invisible hand to sort everything out. In their view, economic growth is the solution to every problem.</p>
<p>But the truth is, after decades of experimentation, we know that each of these two arguments has merit. Each camp has the data and metrics to affirm the rightness&#8212;and righteousness&#8212;of their cause.</p>
<p>And so, today, more than ever before, it is incumbent upon each of us to find ways to draw on the new ideas and best practices of both &#8220;community-oriented&#8221; and &#8220;market-based&#8221; approaches&#8212;not either one or the other.</p>
<p>Because it hurts us to privilege one over the other. It&#8217;s a form of intellectual inequality, which perpetuates actual inequality. </p>
<p>Put slightly differently, if capitalism can be a force for good, why not harness it? And if doing good can help businesses do well, why not encourage it? </p>
<p>We need to create a new paradigm that embraces each&#8212;simultaneously. We need to build bridges of understanding. After all, more often than not, we share the same objectives.</p>
<p>I saw this same dynamic play out again, more recently, in one of the great turnaround stories of our time, in Detroit, Michigan. The &#8220;Motor City.&#8221; The &#8220;Arsenal of Democracy.&#8221; The &#8220;D.&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sure you all know something about Detroit, and its unprecedented bankruptcy. Well, my colleagues and I were proud to join a collaborative effort that helped the city navigate this crisis&#8212;while balancing the demands of the market with the dignity of the community.</p>
<p>As you&#8217;ll recall, there were a number of differing, sometimes opposing, positions on what to do in Detroit. To oversimplify: On one end of the spectrum, we saw billionaires waiting to strip down the Detroit Institute of Arts&#8212;the second largest city-owned museum in the United States&#8212;and then sell of its masterpieces. They saw the bankruptcy as an &#8220;assets and liabilities&#8221; issue. The city had too many liabilities, and they were looking to sell off assets. </p>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum, plenty of people ignored the economic realities entirely. They believed, and rightly so, that citizens who had spent their lives working for the city should receive the pensions that they had earned. Never mind the endless red ink and bottomless unfunded deficits and debt.</p>
<p>So the question for Detroit&#8212;and all of us&#8212;was two fold: How do we save the city? And, more than that, how do we make sure that Detroit remains a city worth saving?</p>
<p>Well, the answer&#8212;much like in Harlem&#8212;was to jettison blind allegiance to only one way of thinking or another, and, instead, to come together. To forge a grand bargain&#8212;in which everyone gave more than they wanted, but got what they needed. (Like the Rolling Stones said...)</p>
<p>This was, in short, &#8220;It can, if&#8221; thinking.</p>
<p>We can save Detroit, if we think about this not in one way, but in all ways, and with everyone in mind. We can save Detroit, if we come together. We can save Detroit, if we build&#8212;and become&#8212;bridges.</p>
<p>Visiting San Francisco, I&#8217;m struck&#8212;as I always am&#8212;by the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge. And this beautiful bridge is the perfect emblem not just for Presidio, but for everything I&#8217;m talking about. So, let me close by getting at this from a slightly different angle.</p>
<p>As many of you know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement&#8217;s Bloody Sunday. Back in March, I was privileged to attend the deeply moving celebration, and to spend time with one of my personal heroes: Congressman John Lewis, who marched in the vanguard of justice on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in 1965.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, he was just a twenty-five year old kid, younger than all of you, I imagine. But John yearned for a better world. He was willing to put his life on the line for it. And he didn&#8217;t just cross a bridge; he built one.</p>
<p>He&#8212;and a generation of heroes marching in unison&#8212;bridged the divide between an America that failed to fulfill its promise, and an America in which a black, gay kid from a working-class, rural Texas town could become the president of one of philanthropy&#8217;s flagship institutions. His life&#8217;s work made mine possible. </p>
<p>Colleagues and friends: As I said before, you, too, are crossing&#8212;and building&#8212;a bridge between the country we are and the country we ought to be. A bridge between the economic concerns that too-often dominate our stale public discourse&#8212;and the social, cultural, and environmental concerns that comprise a new constellation of business imperatives in the 21st century. A bridge between the status quo and a new paradigm.</p>
<p>And bridges are what we need&#8212;now more than ever.</p>
<p>As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. admonished, &#8220;One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge&#8221;&#8212;bridge&#8212;&#8220;the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying.&#8221; </p>
<p>So our challenge is, how do we transcend these gulfs? How do we take your promising successes and turn them into best practices? How do we take what you have practiced here as students, and bring it to the practices of your employers?</p>
<p>No matter what company you work for&#8212;or what calling you answer&#8212;you will have the opportunity, and the obligation, to be the bridge. And this will be ongoing. Because just like on the Golden Gate Bridge, the work never stops!</p>
<p>Ultimately, I have more faith than ever that our future is a sustainable one. Or maybe I should say, it can be, if...</p>
<p>And I&#8217;ll give you 40 reasons why: You.</p>
<p>Our future can be more sustainable, if you build markets&#8212;literally and figuratively&#8212;and make sure they work for everyone.</p>
<p>It can be, if you make the small compromises that usher in big change. It can be, if you negotiate your own grand bargains, and build your own grand bridges. It can be, if&#8212;together&#8212;we commit ourselves to ensuring that social justice and economic growth are not mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing… mutually beneficial.</p>
<p>Class of 2015: Today, you walk across a stage. Forever, you march in the vanguard of a powerful movement.</p>
<p>Thank you for allowing me to share in this most auspicious, momentous moment.</p>
<p>Congratulations. We cannot wait to see what you do next.</p>Mon, 01 Jun 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/960
Darren Walker delivers commencement address at the University of Texas<br>
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<p><a href="http://news.utexas.edu/2015/05/23/commencement-speaker-honors-graduates" target="_blank"><i>132nd spring commencement</a>, University of Texas at Austin</i><br>
May 23, 2015</i></p>
<p>Thank you, President Powers, for your generous words, for so warmly welcoming me back to the 40 acres, and&#8212;much more importantly&#8212;for your almost 40 years of service to the University of Texas.</p>
<p>Through decades of progress, and a few moments of adversity, your unwavering courage has set a powerful example for generations?—?and your boundless love for this institution has remained a stalwart inspiration to me, and to alumni around the world.</p>
<p>Bill: You are the embodiment of Texas Fight.</p>
<p>University of Texas community: Please join me in recognizing the 28th President of the University of Texas at Austin, William Powers, Jr.</p>
<p>To you, President Powers; to our distinguished regents; to President-Elect Fenves; esteemed deans; members of the faculty and staff; honored guests; family and friends of the graduates; and, most importantly to the class of 2015: Congratulations!</p>
<p>This is a momentous evening&#8212;a monumental rite of passage&#8212;one of those special, fleeting moments that will radiate in your memories for the rest of your lives. </p>
<p>Take it from me. I can vividly recall almost everything about my commencement day. The pride. The joy. The uncertainty. The relief.</p>
<p>I also remember when I first set foot on this campus in 1978, I was a clueless, naïve, skinny version of myself. There I was, walking past new kinds of people (I had never seen hippies before); walking on the drag and into this weird, funky, hole-in-the-wall grocery store (a place called &#8220;Whole Foods&#8221;). </p>
<p>I always knew I wanted to be a part of the UT community&#8212;and, though I&#8217;ve traveled far and wide, I&#8217;ve never been apart from it.</p>
<p>My first semester here, I believe I responded to every sign-up sheet I saw on the West Mall. During my time on this magical campus, I drank UT life from a firehose. Every drop. In many ways, it was only when I arrived here that my life finally started.</p>
<p>Now, to understand what I mean, you have to understand where I was coming from. </p>
<p>I was born to a single mother in a charity hospital, and we lived in a small, segregated Louisiana town. But my mother realized that this community was not a place of opportunity for my sister and me, and so we moved to Texas, where we had family&#8212;specifically to a town called Ames, population 1,400, in Liberty County.</p>
<p>My mom studied to become a nurse&#8217;s assistant, a job she worked&#8212;with pride and dignity&#8212;for decades. I attended public schools.</p>
<p>We didn&#8217;t have a lot. But we had enough. And these were my beginnings.</p>
<p>Class of 2015: I tell you all this for two reasons. First, your name is on the degree, but it doesn&#8217;t belong only to you. The second reason I tell you this story is because my story is your story. </p>
<p>The story of a boy, who started life in a little shotgun house in Ames, Texas; the story of a young man who made his way up the ladder in a new city, who has the great privilege of leading an institution committed to ending poverty and injustice in the world&#8212;this is a Texas story. This is an American story. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s a story about transcending and overcoming; about the pathway out and the roadway forward. In short, it&#8217;s a story about bridges. About crossing them. Building them. Being them.</p>
<p>You see, my mother crossed a bridge to take my sister and me into Texas. I&#8217;ll never forget crossing the bridge over the Colorado River on my first visit to Austin. I crossed a bridge into New York, when I took my University of Texas education out into the world.</p>
<p>In fact, every major turning point in my life&#8212;every figurative bridge&#8212;has been accompanied by a literal one.</p>
<p>Yet, the most important crossings in our lives are not always made of cables, and concrete, and steel. The bridges in our lives take many forms.</p>
<p>On my journey, there was my mother&#8212;a bridge from poverty into possibility. But there also were public policies that reflected the generosity of America, the country we love&#8212;the only country in the world where my story could even be possible.</p>
<p>A program called Head Start was my bridge between being unready for life and prepared for school.</p>
<p>Private scholarships from Texas philanthropists and Pell grants were my bridge between lower expectations and higher education.</p>
<p>And during my formative years, I always knew&#8212;with every fiber of my being&#8212;that Texas had my back; that Texas was cheering me on.</p>
<p>In Austin, I had mentors like my English Professor, John Trimble, who told me that, &#8220;you don&#8217;t come to college to get a job. You come to college to get an education.&#8221; I had champions&#8212;women and men who, through their kindness, offered me a bridge to a world I could not have imagined on my own. Without them, I wouldn&#8217;t be here. Period.</p>
<p>Graduates: Just like me, you&#8217;re the product of a community that has prepared you to prosper and to thrive.</p>
<p>In New York, I inhabit a world of prep school grads and Ivy League alums. The tiny island of Manhattan is densely packed with some of the most talented, ambitious people on the planet. But my UT education&#8212;my public school education&#8212;prepared me to compete, to succeed, and, ultimately, to lead. And it has prepared you, too.</p>
<p>This is the privilege of Texas bigheartedness&#8212;the promise of Texas bridges.</p>
<p>My bridges were black, white, gay, straight, rich, poor, and everything in between. And like all bridges, they don&#8217;t discriminate. They join people and places of all creeds and colors, of all communities and categories. They take us on a journey, together&#8212;hopefully, somewhere better. And this is something of which I was reminded only a few months ago, on a very special bridge in Selma, Alabama. </p>
<p>As many of you know, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement&#8217;s Bloody Sunday, a defining moment in American history. I was honored to attend the celebration back in March. It was incredibly, profoundly moving. </p>
<p>I traveled to Selma with one of my personal heroes, Congressman John Lewis, who marched on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, a half century ago. When John boldly led the group of marchers forward in 1965, he was a twenty-five year old kid, more or less, your age. He not only yearned for a better world; he was willing to give everything for it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a few hundred miles away, I was just five years old, and I had no idea what John Lewis was doing for me. He and the others on the bridge marched into men on horses with clubs&#8212;straight into a swift and certain beating&#8212;so that I wouldn&#8217;t have to. Indeed, I am here today because John Lewis, and countless others, put their lives on the line, and made sacrifices for what they believed in.</p>
<p>And yet, there is more that we must do together.</p>
<p>We must continue to bridge gaps of inequality&#8212;in our culture, in our economy, in our discourse, and in our politics. Because the truth is, we see inequality virtually everywhere&#8212;in studies and statistics; in schoolhouses, and courthouses, and jailhouses; and, yes, on the streets of Baltimore and Ferguson and elsewhere.</p>
<p>To me, the challenges of our system are intensely personal. My childhood friends were cousins&#8212;boys with talents, and passions, and potential no different from my own.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, my mother moved my sister and me from Louisiana to Texas. But what happened to my cousins who stayed behind? They found themselves in the same cycle of despair that has caught too many young black men. By my count, five of them have spent significant time in prison.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to know why, for some of us, life unfolds in one way&#8212;and, for others, completely differently. But, in my case, I think bridges made the difference. People had my back, and institutions kept me moving forward. I had bridges built in Texas, and beyond. I had bridges to hope.</p>
<p>And so, I choose to be hopeful&#8212;radically hopeful&#8212;because there is hope in the progress we have seen, which affirms that more progress is possible. My story is all the evidence you need: A black kid from a working-class, rural Texas town, now president of one of our nation&#8217;s flagship institutions.</p>
<p>I am proof of what happens when people set aside differences, and build bridges instead. And I&#8217;ve made my life&#8217;s story into my life&#8217;s passion&#8212;and my life&#8217;s passion into my life&#8217;s project: Ensuring that every boy and girl in this country and around the world can cross the same bridges that I did.</p>
<p>This is not a new aspiration. These are not new ideas.</p>
<p>America always has been about people choosing to bind themselves together. Actively choosing.</p>
<p>We are &#8220;We, the people.&#8221; We are e pluribus unum&#8212;out of many, one. We are the hope of mothers and fathers of every origin crossing an ocean&#8212;or a river. We are the transcontinental railroad, and transatlantic flights, and the interstate highway system, and the Internet. We are Ellis Island, and the Edmund Pettis Bridge.</p>
<p>I know each of you has your own bridges to build, and to traverse. The bridge between graduation and getting a job. The bridge between an environment in peril and ecosystems back in balance. The bridge between communities desperate with need and those rich in abundance.</p>
<p>And so, tonight, as you cross the figurative bridge that is your commencement day&#8212;as you cross that bridge over the Colorado River and leave the 40 Acres behind; as your journey unfolds before your very eyes&#8212;think about how you can build a bridge to a better world.</p>
<p>You know, my office at the Ford Foundation is overflowing with mementos and memories from my unlikely journey&#8212;artifacts from global megacities and rural villages alike.</p>
<p>I traveled more than 100,000 miles last year&#8212;from boardrooms to battered slums; from Detroit to Delhi; from the United Nations to the most impoverished of countries. Everywhere I visit, I try to bring something back, even if it&#8217;s just an idea.</p>
<p>Among the many important things I keep are two sticky notes, affixed to my computer monitor. On them are written a pair of personal mottos. One says &#8220;pressure is a privilege.&#8221; The other, &#8220;you rest, you rust.&#8221;</p>
<p>No doubt, bridges endure a lot of pressure. Bridges corrode, and crumble. They rust. Being a bridge is the work of a lifetime.</p>
<p>But you&#8217;re prepared. Privileged, but poised to change the world.</p>
<p>Yes, a banker can be a bridge. A teacher can be a bridge. A social worker or a scientist, a doctor or diplomat, a police officer or a computer programmer can be a bridge. And for you law-school grads and hopefuls out there: Even a lawyer can be a bridge.</p>
<p>So, every time you feel pressure, embrace the privilege. Every time you feel tempted to rest on your laurels, make that day matter. Because, yes, &#8220;what starts here changes the world,&#8221; but in order to change the world, what starts here cannot stop here.</p>
<p>As I&#8217;ve travelled the globe, I&#8217;ve seen how Texas has prepared me for every challenge, to cross every bridge, to build bridges where they didn&#8217;t yet exist. And everywhere I go, I know that the world needs a little more of that Texas spirit.</p>
<p>Class of 2015: Your future is here.</p>
<p>I cannot wait to see what bridges you cross, what bridges you build, and who you bring together on your journey.</p>
<p>Oh, and one last thing, Hook &#8216;em horns!</p>
<p>Thank you. Congratulations.</p>
Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/959
Foundation announces support for disaster relief and recovery in Nepal<p>The Ford Foundation today announced it was making $500,000 in grants to support disaster relief and recovery in Nepal, where the foundation has supported development work for over 60 years.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are deeply concerned for the well-being of millions of Nepalis whose lives have been so profoundly affected by this disaster,&#8221; said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. &#8220;With these grants we express our solidarity with the people of Nepal, and with the courageous organizations working to help them.&#8221;</p>
<p>Walker said the grants would support both immediate relief and strengthen Nepali organizations that will be critical to longer-term recovery.</p>
<p>Immediate grants include:</p>
<ul>
<li>$100,000 to Save the Children for immediate relief work, especially focused in remote areas of Nepal where aid is hard to reach</li>
<li>$250,000 to The Asia Foundation for grants to local Nepali partners responding to longer-term rebuilding efforts, with a special focus on psychosocial and education support for marginalized and vulnerable communities</li>
<li>$150,000 to the TEWA Foundation for its work across Nepal in support of grassroots women&#8217;s organizations who will be on the frontlines of community recovery</li>
</ul>
<p>For over 60 years, the New Delhi office of the Ford Foundation has supported some of the core institutions of Nepali society – from Tribhovan University, to women&#8217;s groups including Women Acting Together for Change (WATCH) and the Himalayan Grassroots Women&#8217;s Natural Resource Management Association, to indigenous philanthropic efforts like TEWA.</p>
<p>&#8220;The New Delhi office has been proud to work with remarkable Nepali colleagues and we look forward to continuing that relationship in the years to come,&#8221; said Kavita N. Ramdas, Ford Foundation&#8217;s Representative in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. &#8220;We have no doubt that despite the scale of this current tragedy, civil society in Nepal will continue to be a resource, not just for rebuilding the country physically, but to ensure social justice in Nepal&#8217;s future.&#8221;</p>Wed, 29 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/958
Darren Walker addresses the closing plenary at the Skoll World Forum<br>
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<p>Darren Walker, discussing the art of change at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford on April 17:</p>
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<p>&#8220;The arts are an indispensable ingredient in the recipe for progress and change.</p>
<p>Apart from generating economic value, the arts and culture create economies of empathy. And because of that, we have seen them play an integral part in building a wide range of social movements, from the civil rights movement to the Arab Spring.</p>
<p>Artists challenge the status quo and give voice to those left out and left behind. Artists imagine a better world and inspire others to join in building it. They move us to hope, joy, compassion, resolve and, ultimately, action.&#8221;</p>
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<p><a href="https://medium.com/@FordFoundation/on-the-art-of-change-cef0864c4930" target="_blank">Read Darren Walker&#8217;s complete remarks at the Skoll World Forum.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://skollworldforum.org/" target="_blank">Learn more about the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.</a></p>
Sat, 18 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/957
JustFilms Supports Four Films and Interactive Storytelling at Tribeca Film Festival <p>JustFilms, the Ford Foundation&#8217;s film and digital storytelling initiative, is proud to have supported four films selected for this year&#8217;s Tribeca Film Festival&#8212;the New York–based celebration of independent filmmaking.
<p>The films screening at the Tribeca Film Festival with financial and creative support from JustFilms are:
<p><a href="http://www.aballerinastale.com/" target="_blank"><strong>A Ballerina&#8217;s Tale</strong></a><br>
<i>Directed by Nelson George</i><br>
A feature documentary on African American ballerina Misty Copeland that examines her prodigious rise and her potentially career-ending injury alongside themes of race and body image in the elite ballet world.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thediplomatfilm.com/" target="_blank"><strong>The Diplomat</strong></a><br>
<i>Directed by David Holbrooke</i><br>
The remarkable story of the life and legacy of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, whose singular career spans 50 years of American foreign policy&#8212;from Vietnam to Afghanistan.</p>
<p><a href="https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/trials-of-constance-baker-motley-2015" target="_blank"><strong>The Trials of Constance Baker Motley</strong></a><br>
<i>Directed by Rick Rodgers</i><br>
The story of Constance Baker Motley, a civil rights leader who met prejudice and danger with elegance and humor and went on to become the first black woman named to a federal judgeship.</p>
<p><a href="http://chickeneggpics.org/film/among-the-believers/" target="_blank"><strong>Among the Believers</strong></a><br>
<i>Directed by Mohammed Ali Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi</i><br>
Firebrand cleric Maulana Aziz, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, is waging jihad against the Pakistani government, and two of his young students&#8217; lives hang in the balance.</p>
<p>In addition, a series of projects to be presented at the TFI Interactive Summit in New York this weekend were supported by the TFI New Media Fund, a Ford-funded program which uses new media platforms and modern storytelling techniques to engage audiences around issues of inequality and social justice.
<p>The TFI New Media Fund has granted over $1.7 million to support 26 projects since 2011, including 15 storytelling hackathons, new technologies like the virtual reality used in Nonny de la Peña&#8217;s Use of Force, and definition-defying projects like Priya&#8217;s Shakti, an augmented reality comic book and exhibition challenging gender-based violence in India.
<p>The Interactive Summit, which is now in its fourth year, brings together directors, artists, activists, journalists, developers, and gamers to celebrate and creative storytelling and explore cutting-edge modes of creating immersive, compelling narrative experiences.
<p>&#8220;Artists and filmmakers are developing new ways to express the complexities of existence, exposing us to new narratives that undermine complacency and challenge us to think more, and do more,&#8221; said Cara Mertes, director of JustFilms. &#8220;As a social justice organization, we know the power of art&#8212;to give a voice to the vulnerable, to tell the stories that were previously hidden or silenced, and to inspire us to take action for the greater good.&#8221;
<p>Launched in 2011, JustFilms was established to support filmmakers and artists from around the world using creative visual storytelling to highlight issues of justice, rights, and equity; and drive social change. The five-year, $50 million commitment has helped lift up quality films and digital projects tackling urgent social justice issues in innovative and inspiring ways.
<p>In recognition of the Ford Foundation&#8217;s bold commitment to independent filmmakers, the Tribeca Film Institute named Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, a 2015 Innovative Disruptor for his audacious leadership supporting art as a tool for social change.
<p>&#8220;Freedom of expression is a powerful ally of equality, inclusion, and change,&#8221; said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. &#8220;We are proud to support these artists and filmmakers in realizing their visions, and thankful for their incredible work to help us fulfill our own vision&#8212;of a society that is more engaged, more aware, and more just.&#8221;
<p>That commitment to the transformative power of arts and culture was further underlined this month with launch of The Art of Change, a yearlong exploration of culture, the arts, and creativity to create a dialogue with artists, scholars, activists, filmmakers and cultural leaders on the interplay of art and social justice.
<h2>More Information</h2>
<ul class="type-09">
<li>Learn more about JustFilms&#8217; <a href="/issues/freedom-of-expression/justfilms/strategy">strategy</a> and <a href="/issues/freedom-of-expression/justfilms/partners">partners</a>, and explore its <a href="/issues/freedom-of-expression/justfilms/grant-making">grant making</a></li>
<li>To view the films the Ford Foundation has supported over its history, visit our <a href="/issues/freedom-of-expression/justfilms/film-collection#default">film collection</a></li>
</ul>Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/speeches/956
Empowering South Asian Communities Across the US<p><i>Vivek Malhotra, Ford Foundation director for Civil and Human Rights, delivers the keynote speech at the <a href="http://saalt.org/" target="_blank">South Asian Americans Leading Together</a> (SAALT) <a href="http://saalt.org/programs/south-asian-summit/cm-nominations/" target="_blank">ChangeMakers Awards Reception</a>, held at the <a href="http://saalt.org/programs/south-asian-summit/" target="_blank">2015 National South Asian Summit</a> in Washington, DC.</i></p>
<p><i>Friday, April 10, 2015</p>
<p>Good evening. It’s great to be here with all of you good people, so many familiar and new faces. I am inspired by tonight’s ChangeMaker Award recipients. Thank you for everything you do to empower our communities and blaze a path forward for social justice in our country. On behalf of the Ford Foundation, I am honored to accept this Philanthropic Award, and I thank Suman for inviting me to make some remarks.</p>
<p>The National South Asian Summit provides an opportunity to come together, strategize around the important challenges of the day, and build a collective vision for advancing rights and, yes, claiming the power of South Asian American communities, but it also gives us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the work of such a diverse array of strong, vital organizations that are both shining a light on the experiences of South Asian American communities and helping to re-shape the trajectory of civil rights in our country. And I am so thankful to be a small part of this.</p>
<p>Tonight, I represent the Ford Foundation, a proud and long-standing funder of the cause of social justice in our country and around the world. It is truly a privilege to lead our work on advancing civil and human rights globally, but it wasn’t that long ago that I was on the other side of this podium standing side-by-side with all of you.</p>
<p>In December 2000, I made the big leap into social justice work. I had just left a corporate law firm and started a new job (and a new life) as a community-based advocate with an Asian American civil rights organization in San Francisco. There were only a handful of progressive South Asian lawyers in the city at the time, and we all got to know each other well.</p>
<p>I began working with and organizing Asian and Latino immigrant groups to push for a new language access law. It was work that was deeply rooted in and responsive to community needs and so gratifying in its transformative exercise of power at the local level. Two years into the campaign we were successful, and San Francisco and Oakland became the first two cities in the country to enact local language access ordinances, inspiring places like New York and DC to do the same. It was an experience that would transform my understanding of how change can happen.</p>
<p>But as all of you in this room know, it was also a time of great fear. Within my first year on the job, September 11 happened. After the disbelief in those first shocking and agonizing hours after the terrorist attacks began to wear off, a knot grew in my stomach as I and my colleagues began to anticipate what would become an unrelenting and indiscriminate backlash against anyone perceived to be foreign and Muslim; that meant especially people who looked like me, my family, and my friends.</p>
<p>I remember the families keeping their children home from schools, planting American flags on their front lawns in the hope that might keep them safe, and men shaving their beards. For those of us who had the means to do something, the immediate focus was on community safety. There were of course countless incidents of harassment, intimidation, and violence that followed.</p>
<p>In those days, there were few organizations to reach out to the most affected communities beyond cultural associations and houses of worship. There were few avenues to engage the public in a meaningful conversation about race, religion, and rights. And there was virtually no one with deep connections to American Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, and other South Asian communities to advocate on their behalf.</p>
<p>In those early days, I am so proud that my organization, Chinese for Affirmative Action, stepped up to provide a space for an emerging organization, Alliance for South Asians Taking Action, to have a home. And I am of course thrilled to see that ASATA has become a vibrant all-volunteer organization that is at the center of Bay Area immigrant rights and racial justice coalition efforts to support the next generation of South Asian activists, and a vital member of NCSO.</p>
<p>Back then, we could only dream of an organization with the strategic capacity and resources to represent and help network a range of South Asian community partners around the country, in all their diversity, as agents of change in their own right, to confront the injustice of laws and policies affecting their lives. But that is exactly what SAALT has become.</p>
<p>Today, SAALT stands shoulder-to-shoulder with long-standing flagship institutions that form our nation’s civil rights infrastructure, like the NAACP, the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, and the ACLU. They are educating and bringing together affected communities, broadening the public debate on civil rights, and helping to shape public policy on a range of critical issues for our country, from immigration to hate violence to profiling.</p>
<p>But as a funder for social justice, the Ford Foundation doesn’t just look at the organization; we’re also in the business of investing in people, visionary leaders who will help chart new pathways of change.</p>
<p>I want to acknowledge two of those leaders.</p>
<p>First, almost 15 years ago, I got an email from a young South Asian lawyer who was starting up a new national organization to help build a progressive movement for South Asian Americans. She knew I was going to be in DC for a meeting at what was then known as National Asian Pacific American Legal Center and wanted to know if I’d like to grab coffee. I’m still not sure how she heard about me, but remember our little progressive South Asian legal community was small. If there were only a handful of us in San Francisco, you can imagine what it was like in DC.</p>
<p>Little did I know then what an incredible and visionary leader for our community she would become, whether sitting at a table with the president and national civil rights leaders at the White House to negotiate critical policy reforms or becoming a leading voice of conscience on race and civil rights in our country that she is today. Deepa Iyer, I’m so proud to know you and in awe of what you have done to help build SAALT and the NCSO network into what it is today.</p>
<p>The other is, of course, my good friend, Suman Raghunathan, who strategized in the trenches with me when I was at the ACLU to fight back against anti-immigrant laws around the country in the wake of SB 1070. I am already so inspired by the passion and vision that she is bringing to chart the future of SAALT. I know that you have a great team, and that together, you are not only building an organization but helping to lead a movement.</p>
<p>So let me just close with this. At the Ford Foundation, we are ever mindful of the deep legacy and power of the civil rights movement to advance equality and freedom. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We especially remember this in this 50th anniversary of the March from Selma to Montgomery, the Voting Rights Act, and of course the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which is the reason that so many of our families were even able to come to this country, after racist immigration quotas were finally lifted.</p>
<p>But we also know that this movement must evolve to confront the challenges that lie ahead. That includes broadening the voices represented in the conversation to reflect today’s demographic shifts and evolving forms of discrimination. It means identifying and investing in the next generation of social change. And it means supporting those who are innovators, who understand that yes, we still need to be in the courthouse and the halls of Congress, but we also need to organize and empower communities, to engage in the public debate on new terms that reflect our increasingly digital society, and to reach people’s hearts and minds through cultural change.</p>
<p>At Ford, we also know how critical alliance building with other communities is in an increasingly diverse America where communities of color will be the majority by 2040, if not sooner.</p>
<p>SAALT understands these realities. The theme of this year’s National Summit captures the essence of this: it’s time for South Asian communities and leaders to claim their power at the center of a broad-based 21st century racial justice and civil rights movement. Many of this weekend’s plenaries, workshops, and panel discussions feature leaders from other communities of color. SAALT and its community partners are taking a comprehensive approach and forging the partnerships necessary to help us all achieve a more inclusive democracy for the 21st century. The Ford Foundation is so very proud to support this organization and to help support this important national summit. Thank you all for doing the same.</p>Tue, 14 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/events/955
Halal in the Family: Fighting Bias, Challenging Misconceptions<p><i>Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, in conversation with </i>Halal in the Family<i> star and creator Aasif Mandvi.</i></p>
<p>Launched today, <i>Halal in the Family</i> is a new satirical web series starring The Daily Show&#8217;s Aasif Mandvi and House of Cards&#8217; Sakina Jaffrey. Episodes are available to <a href="http://www.halalinthefamily.tv/" target="_blank">watch online</a> now.</p>
<p>Raising awareness of the challenges American Muslims confront while living amid growing hostility and bias, <i>Halal in the Family</i> explores online bullying and hate networks, media bias, and the cynical use of anti-Muslim prejudice for political gain&#8212;all with a humorous bite.</p>
<p>The Ford Foundation believes that culture and comedy are powerful ways to shift perceptions, and we are proud to support the series. On April 1, we hosted a screening and discussion with Aasif Mandvi, producer Lillian LaSalle, strategist Mik Moore, activist Linda Sarsour, Ford Foundation program officer Eric Ward, and others.</p>
<h2>Challenging Hate: Pop Culture and Philanthropy</h2>
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<p>Adey Fisseha, US program officer with Unbound Philanthropy, and Kashif Shaikh, co-founder and executive director of the Pillars Fund discuss how philanthropy can support justice-driven pop culture projects. Moderated by Vivek Malhotra, the foundation&#8217;s director of Civil and Human Rights.</p>
<h2>Meet the Qu&#8217;osbys</h2>
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<p>In conversation: <i>Halal in the Family</i> star and creator Aasif Mandvi; producer Lillian LaSalle; Mik Moore, founder and principal at Moore + Associates; and Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. Moderated by Eric Ward, the foundation&#8217;s program officer for Advancing Racial Justice and Minority Rights.</p>
<h2>A Surprise Phone Call</h2>
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<p>During the conversation, the panel got a call from Norman Lear, writer and producer of All in the Family&#8212;something of an inspiration for <i>Halal in the Family</i>. </p>
<h2>Photos from the Event</h2>
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<p>Learn more about our work on <a href="/issues/human-rights/advancing-racial-justice-and-minority-rights">Advancing Racial Justice and Minority Rights</a>.</p> Thu, 09 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/953
Foundation Launches Effort to Advance Arts, Culture, and Social Justice in the 21st Century<p>The Ford Foundation today announced a new effort centered on the roles art and culture play in illuminating and addressing urgent issues of equity, opportunity, and justice in the U.S. and around the globe. The yearlong exploration, The Art of Change, which builds on the foundation&#8217;s decades-long commitment to advancing freedom of expression, reaffirms the central importance of creativity and cultural expression to healthy societies at a time when they are increasingly under threat.</p>
<p>&#8220;Changes in the world around us demand, more than ever, that we recognize and celebrate art, creativity, and freedom of expression as the revolutionary forces they are,&#8221; said Darren Walker, president of Ford Foundation. &#8220;Widening inequality, growing extremism, evolving technology, and volatile markets render art&#8212;and its unique role in effecting social change&#8212;more important, not less, for societies today.&#8221;</p>
<p>Over the next 12 months, the Ford Foundation will bring together leading thinkers, artists, cultural leaders, and activists from around the world for a series of provocative conversations to better understand the interplay of art, creativity, equality, and justice. The initiative will help determine how the foundation can most effectively advance the arts&#8212;and by, extension, drive social change&#8212;in an increasingly diverse and evolving world.</p>
<p>To help prompt and inform fresh thinking, the foundation is awarding a series of fellowships to exemplary artists and cultural leaders, each distinguished in their field, whose work touches on issues of equity and justice. The fellowships seek to inspire innovation and encourage civic dialogue, giving fellows the opportunity to study issues that intersect with the foundation&#8217;s work and reflect the cultural richness of diverse communities around the world.</p>
<p>Each of the 13 fellows will study a thought-provoking issue or question during the course of the fellowship, ranging from the role of artists and artwork to challenge rising extremism, to literature&#8217;s ability to elucidate the impact of climate change, to the importance of increasing diversity in leadership roles in the cultural institutions.</p>
<p>The 2015 visiting fellows include:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Robert Battle</strong>, artistic director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York, NY</li>
<li><strong>Amitav Ghosh</strong>, author, Brooklyn, NY</li>
<li><strong>Thelma Golden</strong>, director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY</li>
<li><strong>David Henry Hwang</strong>, dramatist, Brooklyn, NY</li>
<li><strong>Deeyah Khan</strong> music producer and filmmaker, London, U.K.</li>
<li><strong>Arnold Lehman</strong>, director, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY</li>
<li><strong>Joy Mboya</strong>, executive director, GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya</li>
<li><strong>Laura Poitras</strong>, filmmaker, New York, NY</li>
<li><strong>Bill Rauch</strong>, artistic director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR</li>
<li><strong>Toshi Reagon</strong>, singer, composer, musician, and producer, Brooklyn, NY</li>
<li><strong>Pedro Reyes</strong>, visual artist, Coyoacán, Mexico</li>
<li><strong>Albie Sachs</strong>, activist, jurist and author, Johannesburg, South Africa</li>
<li><strong>Carrie Mae Weems</strong>, visual artist, Syracuse, NY</li>
</ul>
<p>The arts have long been central to Ford&#8217;s mission. Throughout its history, the foundation has invested in and supported key ideas, individuals, and institutions on the local, national, and international scene, supporting several generations of arts leaders who are firmly grounded in the communities in which they reside.</p>
<p>&#8220;The arts illustrate, explore, convey, and critique our world and our assumptions about it, and have therefore long been central to Ford&#8217;s work advancing social change,&#8221; said Darren Walker. &#8220;This digital age calls for a recommitment to those values, as well as new approaches to arts and cultural funding&#8212;both of which this year of exploration will help us define.&#8221;</p>
Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/954
The Art of Change: Meet Our Visiting Fellows<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Art of Change" src="/Images/newsroom/artofchange_logo.jpg"></div>
<p>For close to eight decades, the Ford Foundation has helped mobilize movements for social justice by supporting ideas, and the institutions and individuals who conceive and propel them. Nowhere is this legacy clearer&#8212;or richer&#8212;than in the arts, where we have stood behind creative visionaries for generations. The belief that the arts and creative expression are essential to justice is deeply embedded in our values.</p>
<p>In keeping with that core belief, the foundation is curating an extended conversation over the course of the year about the interplay of art and social justice around the world <i>today</i>. Our goal is to engage a wide cross-section of artists, cultural leaders, scholars, activists, and leaders in social justice movements to think with each other and with us about important questions, changing constructs, and emerging possibilities—and through these exchanges, to shed new light on the role of creativity and free expression in shaping a more equitable future for all. We&#8217;re calling this year <a href="/newsroom/news-from-ford/953">&#8220;The Art of Change.&#8221;</a></p>
<p>A central component of The Art of Change is our Visiting Fellows Program, which is enabling 13 distinguished artists and cultural leaders to conduct independent study and participate in the convenings, workshops, and other exchanges that will take place during the year. Drawn from around the world, each visiting fellow is renowned in their field for their resolute focus on themes of arts and equity. Together they reflect the diverse and contemporary ways that creative expression and social justice are being twined.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Robert Battle" src="/Images/newsroom/robert_battle.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Robert Battle</strong><br>
<i>Artistic director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater</i></p>
<p>Robert Battle is among the country&#8217;s leading choreographers and one of just three artists who have led the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater since its founding in 1958. Widely admired for his commitment to commissioning new work and spotting young talent, in 2012 Robert launched the New Directions Choreography Lab to develop the next generation of choreographers, a key component of his vision for Ailey&#8217;s future. Under Robert&#8217;s leadership, Ailey continues to perform and teach in numerous US cities and serve as one of the leading international ambassadors for American culture.</p>
<p>Robert began his career in dance at a high school arts magnet program in Miami. His exceptional talent earned him positions at the New World School for the Arts and subsequently the Juilliard School. He honed his dance technique while performing with the Parsons Dance Company from 1994 to 2001 and then founded Battleworks Dance Company to pursue his own choreographic ideas. Battleworks made its debut in Düsseldorf, Germany, and subsequently performed at leading dance venues around the world. Robert has been honored as one of the Masters of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation–USA in 2007.</p>
<p>During his fellowship, Robert will continue his explorations of contemporary African American dance idioms, in partnership with choreographer Rennie Harris and members of the company.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Amitav Ghosh" src="/Images/newsroom/amitav_ghosh.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Amitav Ghosh</strong><br>
<i>Novelist and essayist</i></p>
<p>Amitav Ghosh is a master storyteller and one of India&#8217;s most widely read authors. His fictional work explores historical narratives of colonialism and displacement, among other themes. The <i>New York Times</i> has called him an &#8220;archaeologist of the powerless,&#8221; and the <i>Literary Review</i> has said of his work that &#8220;all of his writing to date has traced connections across cultures.&#8221; He is also a widely published nonfiction writer, and his essays have been featured in the <i>New Yorker</i>, the <i>New Republic</i>, and the <i>New York Times</i>.</p>
<p>Born in Calcutta, Amitav travels widely and has lived in many countries, among them Bangladesh, England, Egypt, and the US. His work, which is available in at least 35 languages, is read all over the world. He has been recognized internationally for decades and has received numerous awards, including France&#8217;s Prix Médicis in 1990 for <i>The Circle of Reason</i>, India&#8217;s prestigious Crossword Book Prize in 2005 for <i>The Hungry Tide</i>, and the International Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis Festival in Montreal in 2011 for lifetime achievement. He was also a joint winner, with Margaret Atwood, of the Dan David Prize in literature in 2010&#8212;an award recognizing outstanding scientific, technological, cultural, or social impact on our world. <i>Sea of Poppies</i> was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and is currently on the shortlist for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize. </p>
<p>During his fellowship, Amitav will explore his lifelong interest in the natural world, and intersections between literature and climate change.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Thelma Golden" src="/Images/newsroom/thelma_golden.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Thelma Golden</strong><br>
<i>Director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem</i></p>
<p>Thelma Golden serves as director and chief curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Thelma shook the visual arts world as a young curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she was a member of the curatorial team for the landmark 1993 biennial and organized exhibitions such as the groundbreaking <i>Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art</i> of 1994. Trailblazing has been Thelma&#8217;s signature ever since. Returning to the Studio Museum in 2000, she has continued to demand attention for emerging artists and provoke new thinking about contemporary culture. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum has secured its position as an internationally important catalyst in advancing the work of artists of African descent. </p>
<p>Thelma has curated more than 20 exhibitions at the Studio Museum and led an innovative curatorial team in organizing many more. Her exhibitions and initiatives bring new perspectives to the work of established artists and draw attention to emerging voices. Under her leadership, the museum&#8217;s foundational Artist-in-Residence program has grown into a globally renowned launching pad for artists of African and Latino heritage. Thelma has also strengthened the museum&#8217;s public and educational programs, research and scholarship initiatives, and deep commitment to serving broad and diverse audiences from Harlem and around the world. </p>
<p>During her fellowship, Thelma will explore what has—and has not—changed in the nonprofit cultural sector over the past 20 years, and examine strategies for expanding the presence and visibility of curators of color in the museum field.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="David Henry Hwang" src="/Images/newsroom/david_henry_hwang.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>David Henry Hwang</strong><br>
<i>Playwright, librettist, and screenwriter</i></p>
<p>David Henry Hwang is one of the country&#8217;s leading playwrights and theater artists, known for his pathbreaking work in illuminating the experience of Asians in the United States and exposing hidden dimensions of race, sexuality, and identity in contemporary life. Collaborating with diverse artists and producers, David has created works in repertory theater, opera, musical theater, film, and television and excelled as a writer, librettist, and producer while often crossing traditional lines of commercial and nonprofit work. His first play, FOB, was produced at the Public Theater and won an Obie Award in 1980. This launched his career and a robust partnership with Joseph Papp that extended to four other productions, including the Pulitzer Prize–nominated drama <i>The Dance and the Railroad</i>. In 1998, David&#8217;s play <i>M. Butterfly</i> won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.</p>
<p>David&#8217;s prolific output has won him numerous other awards, including the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a Grand Master of American Theater, the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater, the Asia Society Cultural Achievement Award, and the ISPA Distinguished Artist Award. In 2012, he was named a fellow of United States Artists, and he received the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award in 2014.</p>
<p>During his fellowship, David will explore the effects of US demographic shifts on social anxieties, and how China&#8217;s authoritarian regime understands and uses the &#8220;soft power&#8221; of the arts.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Deeyah Khan" src="/Images/newsroom/deeyah_khan.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Deeyah Khan</strong><br>
<i>Filmmaker, music producer, and CEO of Fuuse</i></p>
<p>Deeyah Khan is a film director, music producer, and human rights activist. Born in Norway to parents of Punjabi-Pashtun descent, she began her career at 7 as a singer and stage artist. Deeyah experienced ongoing harassment, including threats against her life, from extremists who considered her musical career &#8220;dishonorable,&#8221; hostility that eventually forced her into exile.</p>
<p>Deeyah&#8217;s personal experience of repression has motivated her subsequent work. In 2010, she collaborated with Freemuse: The World Forum on Music and Censorship to produce <i>Listen to the Banned</i>, an album featuring censored artists from Africa, Asia, and the Muslim world. This album hit the top 10 on World Music Charts Europe.</p>
<p>In 2009, she directed and produced <i>Banaz: A Love Story,</i> a documentary about honor killings. The film won both an Emmy and a Peabody Award in 2013. While working on this film, Deeyah founded Memini, a global initiative to remember victims of honor killings worldwide. She is the executive producer of a forthcoming documentary about two female musical artists&#8217; struggle against censorship and patriarchal social structures, and she is completing her second documentary, which examines the social and psychological roots of violent extremism and the rise of the jihadi movement in the West.</p>
<p>During her fellowship, Deeyah will work with her Fuuse colleague Dr. Joanne Payton to conduct research on violent extremism and the role of artists and artwork in bridging gaps between communities, challenging extremist worldviews, and exploring underlying social and psychological issues.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Arnold Lehman" src="/Images/newsroom/arnold_lehman.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Arnold L. Lehman</strong><br>
<i>Shelby White and Leon Levy Director, Brooklyn Museum</i></p>
<p>For 18 years, Arnold Lehman has served as director of the Brooklyn Museum, one of the oldest and largest fine arts collections in the nation. His first official act as director was to march in Brooklyn's West Indian American Day Parade. Since then, he has focused on improving individual visitors&#8217; experiences and animating the community&#8217;s engagement with the museum. In the past decade alone, museum attendance has doubled, visitation by people of color has risen to over 40 percent, and the average age of museum visitors has dropped from 55 to 35. Through daring and sometimes controversial exhibitions, imaginative installations of works from the permanent collection, public programs that connect with Brooklyn&#8217;s diverse populations, and active support for the borough&#8217;s extraordinary artists community, Arnold has helped reimagine the role of museums in 21st-century community life.</p>
<p>Arnold&#8217;s unique brand of leadership has been recognized repeatedly in both the museum field and the community at large. Prior to coming to Brooklyn, Arnold was director of the Baltimore Museum of Art for almost two decades and was adjunct professor of the history of art at Johns Hopkins University. He served as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, was co-chair of Mayor Bill de Blasio&#8217;s Arts and Culture Transition Committee, and currently chairs the Cultural Institutions Group of New York City.</p>
<p>During his fellowship, Arnold will conduct research and consider ways to increase the presence of people of color in leadership roles in the museum profession.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Joy Mboya" src="/Images/newsroom/joy_mboya.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Joy Mboya</strong><br>
<i>Executive director, GoDown Arts Centre</i></p>
<p>Joy Mboya is a performer and cultural activist who currently directs the GoDown Arts Centre, the leading nonprofit multidisciplinary arts facility in Nairobi, Kenya. Educated as an architect, Joy has led the center&#8217;s development as a site for artistic experimentation, cross-sector partnerships, and creative collaboration—locally, within the region, and internationally. An outspoken advocate for artists, she has spearheaded a variety of ambitious projects, including the visual narrative <i>Kenya Burning</i> (2008) and the Nairobi-wide festival Nai Ni Who (2013), and developed programs showcasing artists&#8217; work within the center&#8217;s facility as well as at other spaces in the city.</p>
<p>Widely recognized for both her programming vision and her managerial skills, Joy was appointed to serve on the Governing Council of the Kenya Cultural Centre, which oversees the Kenya National Theatre, and was also elected to serve on the continental steering committee for the Arterial Network, a pan-African consortium of individuals and organizations in craft, dance, film, literature, visual arts, and new media that supports the work of Africa&#8217;s cultural sector. Joy has received numerous awards recognizing her work. The Head of State Commendation Medal in 2009, for instance, marked her contributions to the development of Kenya&#8217;s creative economy, and the Order of the Golden Warrior State Commendation in 2013 celebrated her outstanding leadership in the field.</p>
<p>For her fellowship, Joy will explore new ways to strengthen connections between artists and build artistic capacity, and to fortify policies affecting Kenya&#8217;s creative sector.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Laura Poitras" src="/Images/newsroom/laura_poitras.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Laura Poitras</strong><br>
<i>Filmmaker</i></p>
<p>Laura Poitras is a filmmaker, journalist, and artist whose work bravely tackles some of the most pressing political and social issues of our day. She recently finished a trilogy of films on the post-9/11 war on terror. The final film in the trilogy, <i>CITIZENFOUR</i>, focuses on Edward Snowden&#8217;s exposure of the National Security Agency&#8217;s broad and invasive monitoring of citizens. It won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, along with awards from, among others, the British Film Academy, Independent Spirit Awards, Directors Guild of America, and Cinema Eye Honors. In her acceptance speech, she said that NSA surveillance not only is &#8220;a threat to our privacy&#8221; but also endangers &#8220;our democracy itself.&#8221; As a result of her work, Laura has been on government watch lists since 2006 and has been detained repeatedly at the US border. She edited <i>CITIZENFOUR</i> in Berlin, Germany, to protect the footage and her sources.</p>
<p>Laura has received many honors for her work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012. With Glenn Greenwald, she won the 2013 George Polk Award for national security journalism and shared in the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. With Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, she co-founded the Intercept.</p>
<p>Her fellowship will be devoted to researching new work for her first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she will create an environment of immersive installations that build on the themes she has been exploring in her filmmaking.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Bill Rauch" src="/Images/newsroom/bill_rauch.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Bill Rauch</strong><br>
<i>Artistic director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival</i></p>
<p>Bill Rauch has been challenging our ideas of what theater is, and who makes theater, since 1986 when he co-founded Cornerstone Theater. With Bill&#8217;s unwavering beliefs that artistic expression is civic engagement and access to a creative forum is essential to the health of every individual and community, Cornerstone pioneered new approaches to produce outstanding new work based on the concerns of specific communities. Bill served artistic director there until 2006.</p>
<p>Mixing ultra-urban Los Angeles with very rural Oregon, Bill guest directed several plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), one of the largest nonprofit theaters in the country, while still leading Cornerstone. In 2007 he was invited to become artistic director of the OSF. Over the past eight years, he has led a process of re-envisioning the festival&#8217;s overall artistic program and its relationship to its communities and has directed four world premieres and 15 other productions. Among other initiatives, he launched American Revolutions: The US History Cycle to explore important moments in the evolution of American democracy and American identity. One of its commissions, <i>All the Way</i>, written by Robert Schenkkan and directed by Bill, last year won the Tony Award for Best Play and earned Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for best directing.</p>
<p>Bill will use his fellowship to explore issues related to diversity and inclusion in American theater—among them, enabling more young directors of color to work with the classics, diversifying audiences for regional theater, and fostering innovations in gender-blind casting.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Toshi Reagon" src="/Images/newsroom/toshi_reagon.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Toshi Reagon</strong><br>
<i>Singer, composer, musician, and producer</i></p>
<p>Toshi Reagon has been performing professionally since she graduated from high school. Described as a &#8220;one-woman celebration of all that&#8217;s dynamic, progressive, and uplifting in American music,&#8221; she has mastered folk and funk, blues and rock, and sacred and traditional music formats and is now working in music/theater and opera. Toshi&#8217;s irresistible personality and activism, combined with her singular approach to music and song, has a galvanizing effect on her audiences. She has collaborated with diverse musical artists and her band, BIGLovely, to perform at venues around the world. She has produced more than 15 albums and benefit recordings.</p>
<p>In addition to her work on stage, Toshi&#8217;s music has been included in numerous films and television shows. She has served as curator for the Schomburg Center&#8217;s Women&#8217;s Jazz Festival; the Black Rock Coalition&#8217;s <i>Deep Roots of Rock and Roll</i>; and Celebrate! The Great Women of Blues and Jazz, a 17-piece women&#8217;s blues and jazz ensemble. Toshi has also collaborated as conductor, musician, and instrumental composer/arranger with Robert Wilson and Bernice Johnson Reagon on the operas <i>The Temptation of St. Anthony</i> (2003) and <i>Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter</i> (2013). She is currently working on adapting Octavia E. Butler&#8217;s post-apocalyptic novel <i>Parable of the Sower</i> into an opera.</p>
<p>During her fellowship, Toshi will organize a New York City–wide festival, WORD*ROCK*&SWORD: A Festival Celebration of Women&#8217;s Lives—All Are Welcome, focused on women&#8217;s rights, talents, and artistry, and the impact of creativity on communities.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Pedro Reyes" src="/Images/newsroom/pedro_reyes.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Pedro Reyes</strong><br>
<i>Artist and activist</i></p>
<p>Pedro Reyes uses sculpture, theater, seminars, public performances, and participation to address the interplay of physical and social space, calling for political and economic participation. Less interested in critiquing institutions than in reimagining them, Pedro uses art as a way to encourage collective and individual agency.</p>
<p>His works take on various forms, from penetrable vinyl sculptures to television production. In 2008, Pedro initiated his ongoing project <i>Palas por Pistolas</i>. In the first year, 1,527 guns were collected in a voluntary donation campaign and were melted down to produce the same number of shovels, to plant the same number of trees. This led to <i>Disarm</i> (2012), in which hundreds of musical instruments were made from 6,700 weapons given to Pedro by the Mexican army. <i>Disarm</i> is now a traveling workshop in which teens and young adults transform weapons into instruments and write and perform pacifist songs.</p>
<p>Pedro has had solo exhibitions in Canada, Japan, Mexico, and the US. He has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in France, Germany, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the US, and he participated in the 50th Venice Biennale. His most recent project is <i>The People&#8217;s United Nations</i> (<i>pUN</i>) (2013), a summit at which 193 delegates from every country in the world convened for a series of activities centered on global governance.</p>
<p>During his fellowship, Pedro will continue his planning for a series of annual festivals that will use the arts to reduce the presence of drugs and guns in communities across Mexico.</p>
<div class="pull right"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Albie Sachs" src="/Images/newsroom/albie_sachs.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Albie Sachs</strong><br>
<i>Former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa</i></p>
<p>Albie Sachs is one of the most important leaders in South Africa&#8217;s struggles against apartheid and the suppression of human rights. At 20, in 1955, he participated in the Congress of the People, where the Freedom Charter was adopted, and, following law school, he defended people charged under racial statutes and security laws. Jailed for this work, he eventually had to leave the country. In 1988, Albie nearly lost his life when a bomb exploded under his car. Undaunted, he worked on writing South Africa&#8217;s democratic constitution and was appointed to the Constitutional Court by Nelson Mandela in 1994. His term on the court came to an end in 2009.</p>
<p>Winner of the Tang Prize for the Rule of Law in 2014, he is currently using a portion of the prize to tell the story of the making of South Africa&#8217;s democratic constitution and its Constitutional Court, which abolished capital punishment and ordered recognition of same-sex marriages. A prolific author, Albie is one of only two people to win the Alan Paton Award twice&#8212;in 1991 for his book <i>The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter</i> and in 2014 for <i>The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law</i>. A documentary about his life, <i>Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa</i>, by Abby Ginzberg, was released last year.</p>
<p>During his fellowship, Albie will work to ensure that the story of the making of South Africa&#8217;s constitution reaches the most marginalized person in the tiniest corner of the land. He will also seek to integrate the film <i>Soft Vengeance</i> into anti-retaliation and anti-bullying programs.</p>
<div class="pull left"><img style="display:block;margin:auto;" alt="Carrie Mae Weems" src="/Images/newsroom/carrie_mae_weems.jpg"></div>
<p><strong>Carrie Mae Weems</strong><br>
<i>Visual artist</i></p>
<p>Considered one of the most influential American artists, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, class, political systems, and the consequences of power. She has developed a complex body of art that has sustained her engagement with contemporary cultural discourse for over 30 years. In a review of her recent retrospective in the <i>New York Times</i>, Holland Cotter wrote, &#8220;Ms. Weems is what she has always been, a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible.&#8221;</p>
<p>Carrie Mae has received numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the prestigious Prix de Rome, National Endowment for the Arts support, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award. One of her greatest honors came in 2013 when she received a MacArthur Fellowship. Carrie Mae's work is represented in public and private collections around the world, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.</p>
<p>She will use her fellowship to explore new ways to support artists of color, particularly those who are deeply rooted in and engaged with the communities in which they live.</p>
Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/952
Tapping the power of strategic communications<p>Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and Alfred Ironside, Ford’s vice president for Global Communications, share a byline on the final installment of the Communications Network’s <em>Making Ideas Move</em> series on the power and potential of social sector communications, produced in partnership with <em>Stanford Social Innovation Review</em>. &#8220;[Foundations] have the unique opportunity to communicate uncomfortable truths to entrenched power,&#8221; the authors say. &#8220;But sometimes we … leave unleveraged opportunities for communication on the table.&#8221; They outline &#8220;three things every foundation can do more of, locally or globally,&#8221; to amplify their voice and magnify their impact.</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in <a href="http://www.ssireview.org/making_ideas_move/entry/express_yourself" target="_blank">Stanford Social Innovation Review</a></span>
<h3>Express Yourself</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">April 2, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Darren Walker and Alfred Ironside</span>
<p>With great interest and admiration, we have read and reflected on our esteemed colleagues’ contributions to this series about the role of strategic communications in driving social change. We are delighted to participate in the conversation.</p>
<p>While many have written insightfully about what we can do if we embrace strategic communications, we would like to talk about why these communications are so important and how we can use them to help create real, enduring change.</p>
<p>When the two of us took on our new roles at the Ford Foundation, the president of a major university told Darren that he appreciated the way we were raising our voice on the issue of growing inequality in America. &#8220;You've got an independence to speak out on issues that university presidents don't have anymore,&#8221; this person said. &#8220;I've got a capital campaign to worry about and can’t afford to offend my donors.&#8221;</p>
<p>It rings true. As financial pressures, market-oriented thinking, and short-termism take an ever stronger hold of so many sectors in our society—including the university and arts sectors, and even the public sector—foundations are privileged to enjoy a kind of independence.</p>
<p>Now more than ever we have the unique opportunity to communicate uncomfortable truths to entrenched power, including our very own sector.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.ssireview.org/making_ideas_move/entry/express_yourself" target="_blank">Read the complete article &raquo;</a></p>
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/951
Millions of Lives Transformed: 50 Years of Head Start <p>This year marks the 50th anniversary of Head Start, a government program designed to help break the cycle of poverty by addressing the needs of disadvantaged preschool children. To date, Head Start has served more than 32 million children in the 50 US states, the US territories, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. And every year the program continues to provide essential services for over a million Americans. </p>
<p>The Ford Foundation is proud to have been involved in the program&rsquo;s creation. Our early-childhood initiatives in the 1960s helped inform the federal government&rsquo;s thinking around early intervention, and Ford funding supported the Yale University researchers who helped design the Head Start program. </p>
<p>The Ford Foundation&rsquo;s own president exemplifies Head Start&rsquo;s impact and importance. Darren Walker, who was born in a charity hospital in Louisiana, became a member of Head Start&rsquo;s inaugural class in 1965—an early opportunity that allowed him to pursue a higher education and a successful career in business and philanthropy. He reflects on his experience and shares his views on the program at the National Head Start Association&rsquo;s 50th Anniversary Conference taking place in Washington, DC, this week. </p>
<p>But in spite of powerful evidence—both statistical and anecdotal—that Head Start has been tremendously effective in creating opportunity for children in low-income communities, the future of the program remains uncertain. Cuts to government spending have already affected how many children have access to quality education. </p>
<p>&ldquo;If we want to secure lasting, measurable gains for our most vulnerable young people, the answer is not to give up, but to follow through,&rdquo; Darren Walker says. &ldquo;We must continue investing in poor students&mdash;early, often, and throughout their entire lives. And we must look at the broader landscape of poverty and inequality, as a child&rsquo;s success at school is equally dependent on community-based support, access to quality, affordable housing and transportation, and much more.&rdquo; </p>
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<h2>Learn more</h2>
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<li>Learn more about <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ohs" target="_blank">Head Start</a></li>
</ul>
Wed, 01 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0700http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/950
Restoring Balance to the Criminal Justice System<p>In an op-ed for the <em>Sacramento Bee</em>, Darren Walker issues a rallying cry, calling for reform of the U.S.'s "retributive and prejudicial" criminal justice system. "We know what works," he writes, "And now is the time to rally behind these proven solutions and bring them to scale."</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in the <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article12691112.html" target="_blank"><em>Sacramento Bee</em></a></span>
<br/>
<h3>America's focus on punishment means injustice, inequality</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">March 6, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Darren Walker</span>
<p>From Oscar speeches to op-ed pages, our <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/us/politics/unlikely-cause-unites-the-left-and-the-right-justice-reform.html?_r=0" target="_blank" title="">national conversation </a>has finally focused on one of America&rsquo;s most glaring affronts to democracy: our shameful record on mass incarceration.</p>
<p>We imprison some 2 million people, more than any other country. In the name of justice, we have witnessed—and, with our complicity, perpetuated—countless, unconscionable violations of it.</p>
<p>Why? Because our criminal justice system emphasizes criminalization over justice. </p>
<p>For years, punitive policies—the so-called war on drugs, &ldquo;stop-and-frisk,&rdquo; the &ldquo;broken windows&rdquo; theory and the &ldquo;three strikes&rdquo; theology—have conspired to reinforce injustice and inequality. Together, they have produced an overrepresentation of people of color in our prisons and jails. Today, more African Americans are part of the criminal justice system than were enslaved on the eve of the Civil War.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article12691112.html" target="_blank">Read the full article &raquo;</a></p>Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0800http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/949
Fifty Years After Selma: Marching On<p>March 7, 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of what has become known as Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 when hundreds of civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama attempted to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge&#8212;and were brutally attacked by state and local law enforcement. Two weeks later, movement leaders secured court protection for a full-scale march back across the bridge, all the way from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. These actions, undertaken at great risk, created pressure that helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.</p>
<p>This weekend a diverse delegation (including President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and John Lewis, who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 and has served in congress since 1987) will gather in Selma to commemorate the bravery of the people who crossed the bridge, facing unconscionable violence in the name of justice. Their courage led to tremendous change. But the work of the civil rights movement is unfinished, and we cannot allow the hard-won victories of decades past to be rolled back.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>We honor the courage and vision and sacrifice of our forbears by fighting against injustice today. Relentlessly and w/o apology. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SelmaIsNow?src=hash">#SelmaIsNow</a></p>&mdash; Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sifill_LDF/status/573854330148798464">March 6, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>The Ford Foundation has a proud history of working on civil rights, partnering with many of the organizations and allies who were on the ground in Selma 50 years ago, and who are gathering there this weekend to strategize and reflect. They worked with us to build the litigation field of organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, taking civil rights battles to the courts and securing the rights so many had worked so hard to achieve. A delegation from the foundation, including <a href="/about-us/leadership/darren-walker">President Darren Walker</a>, will take part in the events in Selma this weekend.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Reflecting on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/POTUS?src=hash">#POTUS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Selma50?src=hash">#Selma50</a> words this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IWD2015?src=hash">#IWD2015</a>: &quot;Single most powerful word in our democracy is &#39;We.&#39; We The People. We Shall Overcome&quot;</p>&mdash; Darren Walker (@darrenwalker) <a href="https://twitter.com/darrenwalker/status/574600027475214336">March 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>We are inspired by the struggle and sacrifice of the civil rights pioneers, and invigorated by the passion of the next generation of activists, who are bringing fresh strategies and tactics to a renewed movement for social change. We stand with them, our eyes on the next bridges to be crossed.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Our march continues. There is great work still to be done. Dedicate yourself to nonviolent social change, and we shall overcome. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Selma50?src=hash">#Selma50</a></p>&mdash; John Lewis (@repjohnlewis) <a href="https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/574679394532356098">March 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<h2>More on Civil Rights and Racial Justice</h2>
<ul class="type-09">
<li>Read <a href="/equals-change/post/lets-match-our-reverence-with-resolve">Darren Walker&#8217;s reflections on Selma</li>
<li>Read <a href="equals-change/post/what-we-saw-in-selma">reflections on Selma</a> from Ford staffers Charlene Caronan and Altaf Rahamatulla</li>
<li>Explore our work on <a href="/issues/human-rights/advancing-racial-justice-and-minority-rights">Advancing Racial Justice and Minority Rights</a>, <a href="/issues/human-rights/reforming-civil-and-criminal-justice-systems"> Reforming Civil and Criminal Justice Systems</a>, and <a href="/issues/educational-opportunity-and-scholarship/higher-education-for-social-justice">Higher Education for Social Justice</a></li>
<li> Read Darren Walker&#8217;s essay, <a href="/equals-change/post/a-new-testament-of-hope"><i>A New Testament of Hope</i>,</a> and his reflections on the foundation&#8217;s participation in the <a href="/equals-change/post/a-critical-cause-an-unlikely-coalition">Coalition for Public Safety</a>, a new partnership for criminal justice reform</li>
<li>Video: At the foundation&#8217;s NetGain event, <a href="https://vimeo.com/channels/870381/119354340" target="_blank">Alicia Garza of #BlackLivesMatter talks about &#8220;the activist Web&#8221;</a></li>
<li>Video: Program Officer Eric Ward explains <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1EPIPrg1g8&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank"><i>10 Things You Must Know About Racial Equality</i></a></li>
<li>Read our <a href="/equals-change/post/the-bard-prison-initiative-bringing-hope-to-a-broken-system">Q&A with Max Kenner</a>, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison initiative</li>
<li>Learn about our <a href="/equals-change/post/how-prison-education-can-transform-lives-and-renew-communities">Renewing Communities</a> effort</li>
</ul>Thu, 05 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0800http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/948
Report Finds College Education Essential for California Incarcerated<p>A report released today by the <a href="http://www.law.stanford.edu/organizations/programs-and-centers/stanford-criminal-justice-center-scjc"target="_blank">Stanford Criminal Justice Center</a> at Stanford Law School and the <a href="http://www.law.berkeley.edu/ewi.htm" target="_blank">Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy</a> at UC Berkeley School of Law calls on California to make college education accessible for currently and formerly incarcerated people.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.law.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/child-page/443444/doc/slspublic/DegreesofFreedom2015_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Degrees of Freedom</em></a> documents the state&rsquo;s growing need for college-educated workers, and explains how its 112 community colleges and 33 public colleges and universities can provide affordable, high-quality higher education to prepare thousands involved with the criminal justice system to join the workforce. Based on 175 interviews and extensive research, the report demonstrates that college education reduces recidivism, renews communities, and strengthens economies, offering valuable resources for policy makers, prospective students and college administrators interested in prison education programs in California and elsewhere in the United States.</p>
<p>Our support for this research comes as part of Renewing Communities, an effort aiming to improve educational access in California&rsquo;s correctional facilities and beyond. The goal is &ldquo;to dramatically reduce recidivism by giving inmates the tools they need to transform their lives and contribute to the wellbeing of their communities upon release,&rdquo; says program officer <a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/educational-opportunity-and-scholarship/higher-education-for-social-justice/team/douglas-wood">Douglas Wood</a>.</p>
<h2>More Information</h2>
<ul class="type-09">
<li>Learn more about the Ford Foundation&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/educational-opportunity-and-scholarship/higher-education-for-social-justice/news?id=881">Renewing Communities</a> effort </li>
<li>Read Douglas Wood&rsquo;s account of the <a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/equals-change/post/how-prison-education-can-transform-lives-and-renew-communities">Renewing Communities symposium</a> and watch the <a href="https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11879" target="_blank">TEDx talks from the Ironwood State Prison</a></li>
<li>Learn more about the Ford Foundation&rsquo;s work in <a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/issues/educational-opportunity-and-scholarship/higher-education-for-social-justice">Higher Education for Social Justice</a></li>
<li>Read the full report, <a href="http://www.law.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/child-page/443444/doc/slspublic/DegreesofFreedom2015_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Degrees of Freedom: Expanding College Opportunities for Currently and Formerly Incarcerated Californians</em></a></li>
</ul>Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0800http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/in-the-headlines/947
Studying Diversity in Arts and Culture Organizations<p>Supported by the foundation, a New York City initiative will review the diversity of the boards, staffs, and audiences of cultural organizations in the city&#8212;part of an effort to make diversity a priority for these institutions. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t about racism or purposeful exclusion of people,&#8221; Ford Foundation President Darren Walker told the New York Times, &#8220;This is about sophisticated leaders of boards simply not knowing who to turn to for help, because when they look among their own friends, their business associates, their neighbors, they don&#8217;t see much diversity.&#8221;</p>
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<span class="meta-type publication">Published in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/arts/new-york-city-plans-to-study-the-diversity-of-its-cultural-groups.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></span>
<h3>New York City Plans to Study the Diversity of Its Cultural Groups</h3>
<span class="meta-type date">March 3, 2015</span>
<span class="meta-type author">By Robin Pogrebin</span>
<p>In a major study to be undertaken this summer, the de Blasio administration will review the diversity of the boards, staffs and audiences of New York City cultural organizations, such as museums, orchestras and dance troupes.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re living in a city like we are in New York — with 65 percent people of color right now — maybe we&#8217;re missing out on some of the talent if we don&#8217;t have diverse audiences, staffs and boards,&#8221; said Tom Finkelpearl, the city&#8217;s commissioner of cultural affairs, whose department will commission the study.</p>
<p>Mr. Finkelpearl said there was no good data on the racial, ethnic or gender makeup of New York cultural organizations and their audiences, and that the study, to be done by an outside vendor, would help make clear that diversity should be a priority for institutions when it comes to naming trustees or hiring employees</p>
<p>&#8220;Over 90 percent of staffs at museums nationally are white,&#8221; Mr. Finkelpearl said.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/arts/new-york-city-plans-to-study-the-diversity-of-its-cultural-groups.html" target="_blank">Read the complete article &raquo;</a></p>
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0800